Desert Rose - Book 01

"I'm sorry to hear that. I've seen several good friends go down that path. Some managed to make the relationship work and are still married, usually happily. Some, not so much. Some are still friends, others have not spoken to each other after the divorce notice was served."

"Don't be sorry. I'll catch him sooner or later and he is in for quite the surprise when it happens."

"I'm sure you will if his past is an indication, just don't do anything that you may regret or gets the law involved. Divorce judges tend to take a dim view over revenge."

She laughed a bit. "No, nothing physical and no burning his Plymouth Super Bird or some other spurned spouse thing. I actually like that car. He's just going to realize that he should read things more, and never sign anything you did not have your lawyer read first. I won't say anything more than his reaction will be epic and I won't need to lift a finger."

"Considering some of the things that I've seen go on with a few of the people I know who have gone through the process, I don't think anyone comes out on top, Rose."

"No, you are quite right. A divorce is never easy. It tends to rip open wounds that have partly healed or are at least covered." Rose sat up and turned then slid off my lap to her feet. "Let's finish dinner and then we can talk more."

"Certainly, would you like me to warm up the food?"

"No, I'm OK with it cold. If you would like to though, it's not a problem."

I took a bite, "No, it's just as good cold. I think it would make a great sandwich too."

Rose smiled at me but said nothing the rest of the meal.

As we were cleaning up after the meal, Rose gave me several soft snogs and touches as we passed each other while loading the dishwasher and putting the remains in the refrigerator.

Once we had cleaned up the kitchen Rose led me to a room that was a combination library and sitting room on the second floor with a large window that looked out over the back garden. I took a seat on a paisley Chesterfield sofa that had the look and feel of very old furniture that has been carefully worn over a very long time. Rose stepped over to a large fireplace in front of the sofa and lit the gas burner.

After lighting the fire, Rose headed to a large roll-top sideboard. "Would you like a drink, Thomas?"

"Yes, please. A scotch if you have one." I said.

"I don't have one." Rose replied.

"Well, in that case I'll have whatever you're having." I responded.

Rose giggled. "I actually have several. Blue Label, Dalmore Alex, Royal Household, or a or a selection of Suntory's." she said.

"Oh. That's a hard one. The Suntory's are fantastic whiskeys but I can't turn down a Dalmore. You should always favour the home teams." I said.

"I agree. I still made it a point to bring home three crates of Suntory on my last trip to Tokyo." Rose said as she poured the glasses."

Rose came over and sat on the sofa next to me, handing me the heavy lead rocks-glass with a generous measure of heady golden liquid.

"Şerefe." Rose said, as she raised her glass and I met it with mine.

"Cheers. To a life of enjoyment, liberty and health." I said, as the glasses clinked lightly.

"To a long life of enjoyment, with someone who cares." Rose said as she took a sip.

I nodded as I sipped my scotch. "So, what did you choose?"

Rose held her glass out to me "You tell me."

"It smells like the Suntory Hibiki." I said.

"Very good, you continue to surprise me."

"I'm full of surprises, I guess." I replied.

She slipped her legs across my lap and lay back against the corner of the sofa. "Yes, you are. I find myself starting to wonder how else you can surprise me."

"I may make you wait." I said as I ran my fingers over her smooth slim legs.

"Tease."

"I've been called worse." I replied as I fan a fingernail across the sole of her foot.

"Hey!" Rose jumped and almost spilled our drinks.

"Hmm, me thinks that someone might be ticklish." As I ran a finger across her foot again, though without using my nail.

Rose pulled her knees up trying to get her feet away from my fingers. "YES! Yes, I am."

I ran my hands over her legs again, careful not to tickle. "I'm going to remember that." I said.

"Yes, for some reason I have a feeling you will." She said, looking at me suspiciously.

The house chimed, a double ring that had a bit of urgency to it.

Rose looked at me and put her finger to her lips again. "Command house. Caller ID."

The phantom girl spoke "It is Jonathan."

Rose sighed, her head dropping forward. "Very well, command house, answer speaker."

A short tone then the background noise of a bar or party. "Hello? Rose are you there?" a slightly slurred male voice said.

"Hello, Jonathan. It sounds like you are enjoying yourself." Rose said, slightly louder.

"Hi baby, I'm out with the funding group for a few drinks to celebrate the closing of the Moscow deal."

"Congratulations. When does the design kick-off meeting start?" Rose said.

"Next week, Tuesday. It's in New York. We decided to twist up Trump by having the meeting in his tower. He's pissed we got the contract instead of him." The man said.

"Will you be coming home before then?" Rose asked.

"No, I need to be there first thing in the morning to fizu, finaliz, finalize the funding line agreements. I'll fly to New York tonight." There was a pause and muffled conversation from a girl's voice. "I'll send the jet back Wednesday in case you need it." her husband said.

"I don't think I'll be going anywhere but thank you." Rose replied.

A soft and indiscernible female voice was herd in the background. "Honey. I need to go. The fiancé group wants to go out to Ruth's Chris for dinner." her husband slurred.

"I'll speak with you later." Rose said, sharply.

The line disconnected. "Connection terminated." The house said.

"House command." The chime sounded again. "Full privacy, no calls." The chime sounded once.

"Bastard. Dinner at Ruth's Chris. Huh."

"You don't think he's going there?"

"Oh, I'm sure he is. I'm also sure that he's going to pay cash."

"Oh. Um..., did I mishear something there?"

"No. I...I heard it as well. I'm now wondering if his new little blond 19-year-old assistant has a new ring on her finger."

"Sounds like he as a fixation on young women."

"Yes, he typically has gone after the blonds, from what I've been told. I'm not sure why he found me interesting."

"Rose, you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. I think any man, well any man outside of San Francisco and some other liberal oddball bastions, would find you desirable and want to bed you, at the least. I must admit that I lost control of myself in the car. You are just 'that woman'. One who is beautiful and good. One who brings out, in incredibly intense fashion, the basest emotions and desires of a man. The desires to continue the cycle of life for his bloodline."

Rose started blushing. "I...I'm not sure I agree but thank you."

"Rose, if you had entered the Miss Universe, I have no doubts that you would win. In fact, you could pass as the better-looking sister to Miss Israel."

"Really, Thomas. You are not trying to pick up some bimbo in a pub, please don't go too far in trying to reach my flattery button." Her displeasure clearly audible in her tone.

"Rose, I am not trying to flatter you, I am simply making a direct comparison based on my personal opinions and my direct observations. Add to that, we are not in a bar and I do not in any way think that anyone would consider you a bimbo." I said.

"You don't, hum?" Rose said, her tone still slightly cool.

"No. First off, you're not blond." I quipped.

Rose leaned over and bit me on the shoulder.

"Ouch. I thought I fed you?" I said as I rubbed my shoulder.

"Well, actually I fed you, but sometimes I like to play with my food. And, I am known to bite." Rose said with a light laugh.

I snogged her shoulder, neck, and ear as she snuggled closer. "Would you like some afters, darling?" I asked, gently cupping a breast.

"Later, we need to finish talking so that you, and I, understand where we are and where we may go." Rose said, her hand moving mine from her breast to her hip.

"Uh oh, the 'serious talk'." I said. "But you are correct, today has been incredible but, you are married and I'm being a home wrecker. We do need to discuss this."

"Thomas, I want to make clear that I don't want you to think that you have caused me to think something new, or damaged my marriage somehow. His assistant is out there with him. Oh, I know that the expense reports will show she has her own hotel room, likely on another floor in a much lower grade room. But I have no doubts that that bed is not going to be slept in. It may get used, but not slept in." She said.

"You seem to know him quite well. And not in the most favourable ways." I said.

"Yes, it's how we met, I was once his intern. His wife of that time also knew he was cheating, but it took some time for her to realize it was with me. It seems his proclivity for busty blonds was well known. She did not suspect a C-cup brunet would catch his interest. I did not know of her until after we were married. I did not see his divorce decree, I still have not seen it. I realized as soon as I found out I was not his first wife that our time was limited. That's when I decided that he would pay if..., when he did the same to me."

"Do you really think he's planning on divorcing you for a younger woman?"

"Yes, I'm not his second wife."

I looked at her in mild astonishment.

"I'm his fourth."

"Wow, is he going for the Liz Tayler record?"

Rose laughed. "Perhaps, I think he may believe that women have some Logan's Run syndrome. Hmmm..."

"Hmmm?" I asked.

"What are you doing on Monday and Tuesday?"

"I'm not sure about Tuesday, Monday I'm free all day. There are things scheduled for later this week that I must attend, but I think Tuesday is just going to be an office day for catching up on emails and reports. Why do you ask?"

"Jonathan said that he was going to send the plane back on Wednesday. I'm wondering what he plans on doing with it on Monday. I have a suspicion that he's sending her back to the LA office for something. I'm thinking that I may take a trip to the office and 'just happen to be there when she arrives."

"And you need a 'driver and security escort' to make sure the locals don't take advantage of you?"

"You have spent too much time in bad places with bad company." She smiled and snogged me.

"I have spent even more time in bad places and good company. I think that was more fun, especially when the locals got froggy." I snogged her lips and moved to nibble her lovely slim neck. "I think I can be an Uber for a day. Escorting you would be a benefit. Are you sure you can afford my rates, though?"

"I'm quite sure we can come to some form of an arrangement. After all, money is not the only way to provide compensations for services rendered, darling."

"Services rendered?" I laughed. "So, I'm just providing you 'services', love." I said.

"'Love' is it now? Hmm. 'Rose MacLeod'. I think I may come to like that name." Rose said, carefully ignoring some of my comment as she wrapped herself around me and snogged my neck.

I quickly replayed the last few seconds of the conversation in my mind. 'Love', did I just say 'love'? Yes. Yes, I did. Well, I guess I may have just gone somewhere that I had no intentions of going. When that happens, all you can do is keep going. Trust your instincts, training, and weapons, and pray, asking God that the Devil does not find you before you make it to the end.

Rose shifted and sat up a bit to take a sip of her whisky. I took the opportunity to do the same. The rich complex flavours of the liquid matching the mood between us.

Something in the deep recess of my gray matter started to wave for attention but I could not quite capture the thought.

Holding the drink in one hand, I adjusted the other arm and wrapped myself around Rose's body, my hand finally resting on her tummy. "So, you want to drive down to LA on Tuesday and get to the office before she does, then wait in his office for her?"

"Yes." she said as she snuggled in to my body. "Whatever he wants is most likely in his vault and only he, Lisa, and I have access to it. Whatever it is must be quite interesting if he is going to send her all the way from New York and back for it, rather than asking me to drive down and Fed-Ex to him. I'd like to know what it is. The bonus of seeing what she has on her finger is just icing on the pie."

"Cake."

"Cake? I thought you were going to be the afters?"

I laughed again. "No, love." Deciding that if I was in for a penny, I was in for the pound. "The saying is 'Icing on the cake', not pie."

That something was still banging on in the back of my mind and I was starting to become bothered that I was not able to connect A to B.

"Really, why do you English make the language so difficult?"

"Well, I don't know why the 'English' make it so hard, but I'm Scottish so we usually just ignore it." Bugger, I just missed something important and I have no bloody clue what it was.

"Scottish, yes I rather thought so. We will have to see what can be made of that. Don't the Scots run around in skirts painting themselves blue while chasing sheep and throwing telephone poles?"

I pinched her arse and laughed. "Yes, we are always throwing our telephone poles around. I'm not one to be chasing the sheep, but I have several dress kilts and have been told several times that I definitely have the legs for them."

The something that was kicking my forebrain for attention finally made itself known. "Um, did you just say Rose MacLeod?" I asked a bit agog.

Rose slid her hand down to my cock and started stroking me again. "Yes, I did. And yes, there is a pole there. I'm not going to tell you where you can't put it, but I'm going to be very disappointed if you ever put it some-place other than in me. Come to think of it," she looked at my legs, "you might not look half bad in a skirt."

"It's a kilt, darling. It's only a skirt if you have underwear on. And I do not plan on wearing any at a wedding." I picked up her chin and snogged her deeply.

After some minutes, we broke for air. "Rose, as long as you are around, and will have me, I don't think you are going to have to worry about where I put my pole." I said to her.

"I'm very happy to hear that, love. Come, I want to get our clothing before it gets too late or something decides they would look good as a snack or in a den."

"Oh, yes. I'd have a hell of a time explaining how I lost a company ID, mobile phone, US government CAC and my wallet while making love to someone's wife in the back garden." I did not mention the Sig P365 9mm and two spare 12 round magazines that was in an attached IWB holster system sewn into my pants.

"I'm thinking that you could come up with something, dear. You could say that you were tossed into a lake at a wild party?"

As we rose to retrieve our clothing, I took her hand. "Well the 'wild' is certainly correct, and I'm thinking that two can definitely be a party."

Rose led me to a wall and raised her wrist to a point a few feet to the right. The wall opened to reveal a well disguised six-person elevator. We stepped in and she pressed the starred G button. I noticed that the rest of the console had buttons labelled S2, S1, 1, 2, 3 along with the usual fan, light, inspection, and fire department controls. None of the controls had key locks usually associated with elevators. A separate control panel on the other side of the door had a small biometric scanner and four buttons that were coloured and each was a distinctive shape with raised edges as well. The green star, yellow square, blue triangle and red raised round button like an emergency stop were intriguing.

"This is a very nice feature for a home. I've not seen very many in home elevators, but I'm guessing that it has some additional functions you don't normally find in the average house. I'm also thinking that it may have some features that you don't find outside of some government bunkers."

Rose slipped her hand to my hip. "Yes, most guests don't get to see this part of the house. We have a safe-room that can be accessed quickly from several areas. The elevator is designed to ensure that anyone in it can reach the safe-room even if the power and hydraulic systems fail catastrophically."

We reached the ground floor and the door hissed open. "It's quite a place, I admit I'm very impressed."

"Yes, this is one of houses that well pre-dates the recent mini mansions have been built over the last several years. While the original house was rather nice, I've had a lot of design input in the renovations and upgrades. I've made sure that as large as the house is, it is manageable by one person."

We stepped out of the elevator and I noticed a large Roomba rolling across the floor nearby. "Roomba's are a nice touch but I don't like having to empty the dust bin and fill the water every other day."

"Well, if you look closely at the docking station you can see that I've solved that problem."

"Really?" I stepped over to look at the docking unit and noticed that it was a quite a bit larger than usual. A closer look revealed a complex interface that allowed the robot to be serviced while in the dock. "I see. You have the central vacuum system suck out the dry bin and the dirty water sucked to a drain."

"Yes, but the system does a bit more as well. I measured the amount of solution and water the unit holds. When it docks, the dust bin, dirty water and clean water is suctioned out for disposal. The solution is suctioned out and returned to the bulk storage to empty the container. The system then refills the water and cleaning solution bins on the Roomba using a known volume quantity measurement. Unless the unit gets 'lost' or stuck, or I need to perform a more in-depth service, the system just runs unattended. I have eight units, so far I've only had to work on three of them over the last year."

"Are you an engineer by trade or is this more of a hobby?"

"No, I went to university for interior design, I took several computer science programming and system design courses and ended up with a Masters in internal fashion design and a minor in computer systems architecture. Design is design when you think about it. Oh, I'm not saying that I could design a full building, the structural stress calculations are a bit beyond me, but I think I could do a good job designing the basics and let the architecture staff work the details."

"Beautiful and smart."

"Stop that Thomas, besides I said it first. Come, we need to get our clothes and then see about afters."

Part 6 -- Starry Night

As we got close to the sliding door Rose commanded the house to light up the back garden. The lights were well designed, the footpath had subdued downward lighting and the general area lighting was such that it did not impact stargazing but provided enough light to see most of the details of the flora, and any fauna that might be near.

Making it out to the courtyard I made it a point to get to my pants before Rose. I was not sure how she would feel about my firearm and did not want to induce any further stress on her. After picking up and rolling my pants to prevent any possibility of the weapon or magazines slipping from the holster, I found her panties and the rest of my clothing.

"Have you seen my panties?" she asked looking around the far side of the table that she had so recently been bent over as we made love.

"I have them right here, darling. Have you found everything else?"

"Yes, let's go back. I'm getting nibbled on and it's not by you."

We headed back inside and Rose lead me back to the elevator. She pressed the 3 button and we snuggled against each other as the elevator rose. "Do you want to wash your clothing, darling?"